The books of Vladimir Megre make reference to various ancient traditions defined as "pre- Russian Revolution", "pre-Christian Slavic", and "Vedrussian". [85] These practices, according to the Anastasians, have not necessarily to be reconstructed ancient practices, but they may be innovated or invented as what is really important is that they are not performed thoughtlessly and mechanically as an empty form, but that they are invested with meaning, with semantic value. [86] The meaning of the tradition is precisely to do things as if they were done "for the first time", as the "first actions". [86] Andreeva defines Anastasian traditionalism as one who "accepts innovations and adapts to the surrounding reality" as traditions have to be a "means of self-realisation". [86] Besides Megre's books, Anastasians draw from a variety of sources and authors, including B. A. Rybakov, V. Y. Propp, V. A. Chudinov, S. V. Zharni. [87] The greatest spiritual teachers known to mankind for their religious teachings and philosophical and Anastasians engage in communal ceremonies and individual rituals and folk traditions, which are deemed "an obligatory component of a full life", [81] necessary to integrate the "isolated modern man". [82] Rituals for the sacralisation of the "love spaces" are crucial for most believers, a sacralisation which means making the "love space" a place where nature, the thought of God, is ideally free to unfold itself. [83] Various ritual activities are aimed at awakening the "ancestral memory" and the channels of reincarnation; they may include meditation, singing songs and playing musical instruments, composing and reciting poems, and dancing in circle. [82] Rituals of purification, performed in preparation for the holidays and the connection with the ancestors, may include bathing in icy water and then jumping three times over a bonfire, as well as walking on hot coals. [84] Anastasianism has been studied by scholars of religion as a new religious movement, [3] a nature religion [25] classified as New Age [4] and Neopagan. [26] The scholar Julia O. Andreeva noted that Anastasianism is a movement difficult to define because of its "blurred boundaries". [27] Similarly, the scholars Vladimir B. Yashin and Boris I. Kostin defined it as a "soft-frame movement" fillable with elements drawn from a variety of traditions. [28] The scholar Anna Ozhiganova observed that "the Anastasians themselves, claiming to be the successors of some ancient tradition, consider themselves to be modern Paganism", and researchers, on the other hand, view them as "a variant of the Russian New Age". [29] Yashin and Kostin found Anastasianism to be a mutual convergence of New Age and Neopaganism, and they defined it as "one of the most successful and large-scale projects in the field of alternative spirituality in modern Russia". [30]

Sharashkin, L., Gold, M., and Barham, E. 2005. Eco-farming and agroforestry for selfreliance: Small-scale, sustainable growing practices in Russia. Proceedings of the Association for Temperate Agroforestry Conference. 12–15 June 2005, Rochester, MN. Many Anastasian settlements produce goods from the Siberian cedar characteristic of the movement (products such as cedar oil, cedar kasha, and cedar amulets) and from birch, [111] others produce willow tea, [108] while in the northwest of Russia other settlements produce "Ivan's tea", a fireweed tea, which they believe to be an indigenous and authentic beverage of the Russian peasants, a legacy of the ancient Russian culture, which has healing and relaxing effects and "suits the body and soul of the Russians", contrary to foreign and harmful beverages. [55] The Grishino village in Leningrad Oblast was among the first to produce "Ivan's tea", and they organised the "Festival of Russian Tea" with the support of the local administration. [55] Other Anastasians grow a variety of vegetables and fruits, one of the most successful products being strawberries. [108] Other settlements manufacture a variety of goods such as solar panels, hives, or sell milk. [108] Beekeeping is a very widespread activity. [68] Anastasians pay great attention to health, and especially to the health of children, often rejecting the treatments of modern medicine, as Anastasian anthropology conceives man as an integral entity, existing only as an inextricable interconnection of the spiritual and the physical. [74] In this vein, many Anastasians practise home birth or birth at sea, body hardening, herbal medicine, treatment with honey and bee products, and refuse vaccines and drugs. [75] Natural childbirth is emphasised, and well explained in Megre's books even with the description of the childbirth rite of the ancient Vedrus, while medical support in childbirth is completely rejected as the "main crime of civilisation against humanity", as "it is a vivid illustration of the loss of ability in women of the generative instinct, and the loss in modern people of the knowledge not only of the primary sources, but also of the elementary culture of feelings". [76] The reasons for Anastasians' refusal of medical treatments for illness and childbirth are primarily esoteric, as they believe that medical intervention violates the integrity of the body and the spiritual essence of the human being. [77]Sharashkin 2009, abstract: "They knew there is no death, and saw in the universal cycle of birth, growth, maturity, death and re-birth a reflection of the Divine Thought". Pranskevičiūtė, Rasa (2017). "Конструирование сакрального в природоориентированных духовных движениях (на примере виссарионовцев, анастасиевцев и ромувцев)"[Constructing the sacred in nature-oriented spiritual movements (on the example of Vissarionites, Anastasians and Romuvans)]. Colloquium Heptaplomeres (in Russian). Nizhny Novgorod: Minin University. IV: 54–65. ISSN 2312-1696. Andreeva & Pranskevičiūtė 2010, p.102; Andreeva 2012a, p.233, note 1; Pranskevičiūtė 2015, pp.447–449; Pranskevičiūtė 2017, pp.60–61.

He has authored numerous articles and several books on ecosophy (the interpretation of cultural and In 1994-5 he leased a fleet of river steamers which made two trading voyages along the Ob River north of Novosibirsk. [1] [4] The Ringing Cedars of Russia [ edit ] The social ideal of the Anastasian movement, upon which all its organisation relies, is the kinship homestead, or ancestral estate (родовое поместье, rodovoye pomest'ye) consisting of a parcel of land of approximately one hectare owned by one family, where the family's members and their descendants can live without having to rely on modern urban civilisation. [97] The kinship homestead is owned by a kin, a family, and is handed down from generation to generation. [55] The model of the kinship homestead is believed to be a reproduction of the universe's working, or God's working. [55] It is the actualised "love space", conceived as an "ideal form of organising the existence of the human race", a microcosm which unites man to nature, to the God of the universe, where the relations between kindred people and between the kin and the universe open up. [59]Noffke, Oliver (2020-10-29). "Was ist die Anastasia-Bewegung?"[What is the Anastasia Movement?]. Tagesschau (in German) . Retrieved 2023-07-07. On their part, Anastasians tend to be syncretic and even integrate Christian beliefs and festivals into their religion. [84] They have "practically no acute hostility towards Christians", although most of them consider Christianity to have "proved its complete failure over a thousand years of its reign in Russia". [44] Other hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church have called for a dialogue and even integration between Orthodox Christianity and Neopaganism, abandoning the strategies of antagonism and discrimination, prejudice and defamation, while recognising the values about connection with the land and the ancestral tradition that the Neopagan movements carry with themselves, [135] as "it is not worthwhile to erect vain and unfounded vilification and throw mud at our ancestors", [136] as these values were "not even in sight for a thousand years in Russia, for rare exceptions, and even more so in other countries. [137] It is precisely this forgotten culture of the land, if one may call it that, that has now begun to revive in Russia" and could prevent that "we [Russians] become one hundred percent Westerners". [137] About Anastasianism, Sergey V. Kurepin stated that: [136] The Anastasians believe in the interconnectedness of all being, and therefore they greatly emphasise the moral responsibility of individuals and humanity towards the surrounding world; they believe that human thoughts and feelings actively, magically influence the surrounding world, having the power to affirm or disrupt natural harmony. [66] The surrounding reality is actively shaped by human thought and speech, which is read and realised by the universal mind; therefore it is important that humans have good thoughts and good speech, avoiding any negative and destructive word. [42] Pranskevičiūtė reports the following excerpt from Megre's first book, Anastasia: [67] Ozhiganova, Anna (2015). "Дети New Аgе: утопический проект движения 'Анастасия' ('Звенящие кедры России')"[Children of the New Age: The utopian project of the 'Anastasia' movement ('Ringing Cedars of Russia')]. State, Religion, Church, in Russia and Abroad (in Russian). Moscow: Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. 2 (33). ISSN 2073-7203. Verity Michaels is new to New York City, but even she knows riding in a stolen cab is not a normal way to meet someone. Damn it if that tattoo-covered would-be felon isn’t everywhere now, and lighting everything on fire under her skirt.

A view of some buildings of Korenskiye Rodniki ("Root Springs"), an Anastasian settlement in the Shebekinsky District, Belgorod Oblast, Russia. The "Anastasia Foundation for Supporting Culture and Creativity" (Владимирский фонд поддержки культуры и творчества «Анастасия») is a non-commercial organisation, a private foundation established in the city of Vladimir by Vladimir Megre. It functions as an information and coordination center of the Ringing Cedars' movement. "LLC Megre" is, otherwise, a commercial organisation that produces cedar oil and other products under the brand name "Ringing Cedars of Russia". Anastasianism does not have a rigid structure, centralised organisation, hierarchy or authoritarian leaders, [94] fixed membership and fees. [95] Anastasians believe in "self-government", which is not a "pyramid of power" but rather is "the presence of God and the divine laws in action [...] reliance on the Spirit". [96] Independent associations of like-minded people arise situationally and spontaneously as clubs of readers of Megre's books in the cities, for instance to discuss the books, hold seminars, attend concerts, find common solutions to problems; beginning from there, some then decide to establish ancestral settlements in the countrysides. [95] The participants of the movement themselves, based on the ideas of the books, are encouraged to develop applied ideological and organisational materials on their own. [95] Kinship homesteads and settlements [ edit ] Banquet for the opening of a new ancestral homestead within a broader ancestral settlement. Andreeva, Julia Olegovna (2012a). "Представления о народных традициях в движении 'Звенящие кедры России' "[Representations of national traditions in the movement 'Ringing Cedars of Russia'] (PDF). In T. B. Shchepanskaya (ed.). Аспекты будущего по этнографическим и фольклорным материалам: сборник научных статей[ Prospects of the future in ethnographic and folklore materials: Collection of scientific articles]. Saint Petersburg: Kunstkamera. pp.231–245.Somehow in the mid-90s, an ordinary businessman [Vladimir Megre] engaged in trade on the waterways of Siberia made an unplanned stop with his ship in a place on the banks of a Siberian river and met the local residents. Some of them turned out to be representatives of our ancient, pre-Christian civilisation, who carried through the centuries the entire spectrum of ancient Russian traditions, both religious and cultural. The businessman became very interested in their life and, over the course of several years, became so close to these people that he even married a local girl. Ultimately, he wrote ten books about the life of the Vedrussians, as they call themselves, and our modern life from the perspective of their civilisation. These people have not only preserved the entire pre-Christian culture, but also adequately assess modern reality, know everything about it and even understand some issues better than you and I. Antisemitic tendencies [ edit ]